Named the reasons of record growth of life expectancy in Russia

28.05.2016

Data recently published by the world health organization, indicate that life expectancy for men in Russia for 13 years increased by 7.4 years and women by five years. Thus, for the first time in the history of modern Russia the average age of men reached 66 years, women – 77 years.

photo: Gennady Cherkasov

As explained head of the Department of epidemiology and prevention, Russian cancer research center them. N. N. Blokhin ran David Zaridze, mortality in Russiaincreaseddramatically from 1991 to 1994, then decreased until 1998 and increased again until 2003, and then again there is a tendency for its reduction, writes “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”.

According to him, one of the key factors, in varying degrees, affect the mortality for a variety of reasons, excessive alcohol consumption and Smoking. In particular, alcohol 10-20 times increases the risk of death from accidents, as well as tuberculosis, diseases of liver and pancreas, and many other reasons. According to Zaridze, in Russia there is a generally positive dynamics of the consumption of alcohol, and this generally contributes to the increase in life expectancy of Russians. Although the data that in Russia began to smoke less, Zaridze does not, he notes that in this direction a major step was the introduction of maximum permissible levels of tar and nicotine in cigarettes, that allowed to reduce the hazards.

David Zaridze notes that the reduction of alcohol consumption and Smoking observed in many developed countries and, apparently, directly related to the increase of life expectancy in them.

The average life expectancy in Russia, according to the who report, is approximately at the level of the average for the world, and the world has witnessed several smaller difference smaller gap between men and women on this indicator than in Russia — according to the global statistics, for those born in 2015 boys life expectancy will be 69 years old, and for girls — 74. From countries where people are most likely to become centenarians, Russia, despite positive trends, still very much lagging behind: in Japan, women live to an average 86 years, and men Switzerland to 81 years.